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Woody Nickels: Youngest Casualty of the Battle of Marianna, Florida

"Good-bye all of you, I'm in for it now."

Woodbury "Woody" Nickels was killed at
the Battle of Marianna, Florida. He was a
15-year old student at Marianna Academy.

Editor's note: The following is excerpted from Dale Cox's critically-acclaimed book, The Battle of Marianna, Florida. It tells the story of Woodbury "Woody" Nickels, a 15-year old schoolboy who fought and died on September 27, 1864.

(Excerpt)

[A] fascinating account of the scene in town was written years later by Mary Beeman, who as a 12-year-old girl had been sent from North Carolina to stay with relatives in Marianna. She and her younger cousin were walking up what is now Wynn Street on their way to school but found the people of the town all greatly alarmed. They stopped at the corner of Wynn and Lafayette to admire the roses on the fence of Mrs. Caroline Hunter’s boarding house before continuing up Lafayette Street into town:

…We were now fairly in town and were soon curious to know what was amiss. Something was wrong as could plainly be seen. Women stood bareheaded talking in groups on the sidewalk or at the gates, with a look of startled expectancy on their faces, all talking so eagerly and all at once as in a chorus, while the little children grabbed tight their mothers’ hands or dress skirts, and gave little terrified glances up and down the street. [96]

Beeman remembered that it seemed as if everyone in town was “mad today.” The schoolboys ran excitedly in the streets as if a holiday had been declared, but the men looked angry, and the women rushed to save what possessions they could:

…Wagons, carts and carriages drive hurriedly up the street, while in many yards carts and wheelbarrows even stand at front doors, being heavily laden as on moving-day. Women would rush to the door with sheets tied up full of something, dump it in the carts and fly off like mad for another load. And the men sat impatiently in the wagons, calling out: “Hello! Hurry up there, unless you want them to come before you get these tricks off.” [97]

The Nickels or Bellamy Mansion no longer
stands. This was the scene of Woody's last
farewell to his family. The house is better
remembered for its connection to Jackson
County's Bellamy Bridge Ghost Story.

It became apparent to the girls that there would be no school that day, so they went to the home of her uncle, William Nickels. A prominent Marianna merchant and innkeeper, Nickels lived in the massive old mansion built years earlier by Samuel Bellamy. They were told there by a cousin that 10,000 Union troops were on their way, which prompted Beeman to remark that they would “swallow
Marianna.” Another relative responded defiantly that they would have to swallow guns and bayonets if they did. “We won’t sit ready greased for the eating,” the female cousin proclaimed. It was as this discussion was underway that Beeman’s 15-year-old cousin, Woodbury “Woody” Nickels, appeared in the central hallway of the house:

“What’s that, little Reb,” called out Woody, as he came bouncing in the hall where we were all at work with toungue and hands; “want me to bring you a dead Yank for that bloody speech after the battle?” “Yes, Lot’s of them” returned I, “if you can. Nothing would please me better.” Well, here goes!” cried he, taking Josie’s gun and cap from behind the door and proceeding to don one and load the other [Note: Josie was Woody’s brother, who had been killed earlier in the war]. “Put in lots of shot,” I called to him. “Aye, that I will. Good-bye, all of you. I’m in for it now.” And he gave me a pinch on one cheek, while he laid a hearty kiss on the other. As he went down the steps he called out to me: “Don’t you wish you were a man?” [98]

Dale Cox, author of The Battle of Marianna, Florida, points
out bullet scars on a grave monument for students of
Thomasville Christian School.

(End of Excerpt)

Woody Nickels died that day. He was among those inside St. Luke's Episcopal Church when it was torched by Union soldiers. Running out through the front door, he was shot through the leg. The wound left him unable to walk, but Woody crawled as far as he could from the fire, wrapping his arms around the Robinson monument in front of the church as his enemies closed in around him.

The body of Woodbury "Woody" Nickels was found in the St. Luke's Churchyard after the battle. His hands still clung to the monument. His head had been crushed by a blow from a musket butt.

Just 15-years old, he was the youngest man killed in the Battle of Marianna.

Editor's Note: Read the full story in Dale Cox's book, The Battle of Marianna, Florida. It is available in Marianna at Bespoken Gifts and Antiques (4430 Lafayette Street) or online from Amazon in print and Kindle e-book formats. Click here for ordering information. 

You can also learn more in this free mini-documentary from Two Egg TV:

References

[96] Mrs. Mary Beeman, “Killed in Cold Blood,” Our Women in the War: The Lives They Lived, The
Deaths They Died, published by the Charleston News and Courier, 1885.

[97] Ibid.

[98] Ibid.

Hurricane of 1877 at Chattahoochee, Florida

Recreated path of Hurricane #4 in 1877.
Map and data from NOAA.

A hurricane devastated a wide area of Northwest Florida in October 1877. The Chattahoochee area was particularly hard hit by the storm, which researchers have dubbed "Hurricane #4."

The National Hurricane Center believes that the storm made landfall somewhere between Apalachicola and present-day Panama City Beach on October 3, 1877. It is believed to have been a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 115 miles per hour.

After making landfall, the storm tracked to the northeast across today's Bay, Washington, Calhoun and Jackson Counties until the eye passed over or near Chattahoochee. Damage reports were stunning, as is explained by a letter written from Chattahoochee on October 6, 1877:

The Apalachicola River at Chattahoochee, Florida.
The river was still crossed by ferry in 1877.

...The freshet and gale has done much damage in this section. The gale began on Monday and continued till Wednesday. It was very heavy during Tuesday and Tuesday night. Twelve mills and water gins within a few miles of here have been swept away. There is only one mill, that of Mr. McMillen, standing in twenty miles of here. -  Report from Chattahoochee dated October 6, 1877, Marianna Courier, October 1877. 

The railroad did not yet cross the Apalachicola River into Jackson County, but had reached Chattahoochee by 1877. The storm did so much damage to the tracks and trestles that no trains could reach the city:

...All the bridges are gone, and the railroad is so washed up that we have had no train since Tuesday, and it is not thought that the road and bridges can be repaired under eight or ten days. So we are cut off from all communication with the outside world. - Report from Chattahoochee dated October 6, 1877, Marianna Courier, October 1877.

The Tallahassee newspapers reported that the storm did extensive damage all along the Gulf Coast. A storm tide of 12-feet above normal was reported at St. Marks, a large schooner was driven completely ashore on St. James Island and parts of the wharves and several boats were wrecked at Cedar Key.

The old Apalachicola Arsenal at Chattahoochee as it appeared
when the 1877 hurricane struck the city. The structure at left,
with verandas, remains in use as the Administration building.

The damage around Chattahoochee was even worse. Newspapers reported that roofs were torn from homes and businesses, trees were uprooted and that even the crops of the region were devastated. Cotton plants were literally blown out of the ground in the fields. Farm workers tried to salvage what the could by digging the cotton bolls out of the mud, trying to save enough to make their loan payments:

...The damage to the cotton crop is heavy, having been blown out and beat under the ground by the heavy rain, but with dry weather much of it can be saved. It will be impossible for planters to meet their notes for guano and other supplies, which mostly come due about the 15^th. The railroad was quickly repaired. - Report from Chattahoochee dated October 6, 1877, Marianna Courier, October 1877.

The death toll from the storm was not broken down locally so it is difficult to know how many people lost their lives along its path through Florida. Along its total path from the Caribbean up through the Atlantic Coast states of the United States, however, the storm claimed at least 84 lives.

It crossed over Georgia and the Carolinas, its feeder bands reaching into the Atlanta Ocean, and then moved up the coast to the north, causing floods and doing heavy damage all along its path.